Whitehall to Wagga Wagga : The Legacy of UK Tax Law in Australia

This article explores the influence of UK tax concepts on the development of the income tax in Australia. It shows how certain aspects of the UK's 1842 Income Tax Act found their way initially into the various income taxing provisions enacted by the Australian states in the second half of the nineteenth century and ultimately into the federal income tax provisions that were developed in the first half of the twentieth century. It also shows how that influence was contemporaneously and subsequently reinforced by shared judicial interpretation of sometimes differing legislative provisions. Finally, it identifies the impact of the UK's capital gains tax (CGT) provisions on the development of Australia's own CGT regime in the latter half of the twentieth century, again with sometimes shared jurisprudence. The analysis concludes that while the UK influence is evident, it is only one of a number of powerful factors that have shaped the manner in which income and capital gains are taxed in Australia. The article also argues that the influence is not always direct, and nor is it always one way